New and Improved Life
by ChibiWolf18
Summary: After a tragic accident, Jeremy is left orphaned until a family member of his volunteers to look after him. He seemed like a decent person at first but, with time, will he reveal his true colours? He insists that he's trying to help Jeremy... Life seems to be looking better, so maybe... He really isn't that bad?


Jeremy's eyes flickered open as he was abruptly awoken from his sleep, hearing the sound of loud yelling. The sound of a female voice and a male voice combined and echoed throughout the house and filling the emptiness in the 10 year old's room. This had been happening for the past couple of years. His parents would argue all the time and not just at night. Sometimes they fought in the morning while Jeremy tried to eat his breakfast. Sometimes they argued in the car while they were driving to what was supposed to be a happy family outing. Jeremy would go to school crying because his mother would claim to never return home when she left for work, but everytime he arrived back from school, he would always find her sitting in the kitchen or living room doing her own thing, before the fighting would begin again shortly after his father would arrive home. As he remembered this, his train of thought was stopped suddenly as the voices got louder, their voices becoming scratchy as they had possibly been yelling for hours.

Knowing that he would never get any sleep at this rate, he decided that he would let his curiosity take over and he got out of his bed, carefully tiptoeing down the hall and holding onto the railing as he clambered down the stairs quietly, stopping at the entrance to the kitchen, sitting with his back to the wall to avoid getting caught. He could hear his parent's conversation clearly now, but they were talking over each other now so he could only really decipher a few words.

'Stupid'

'Good for nothing'

They weren't even arguing about anything anymore, Jeremy had concluded. They had probably ran out of arguments so now they resorted to insulting each other. It took another 20 minutes or so before he heard the jingling of metal car keys and his mother screaming '... And I'm never coming back!' Before she stormed out of the kitchen door and slammed the front door behind her, his father in close chase, Jeremy had watched her in shock and hadn't had time to react before his father yelled 'Why are you still up?! Get back to bed now!' Jeremy rose to his feet hastily, knowing his father was still angry and not wanting to be the next one he argued with. It took a while but he managed to fall asleep.

* * *

The next morning, Jeremy sleepily got out of his bed, rubbing his eyes as he yawned, walking down the stairs slowly and entering the kitchen to eat breakfast. He saw his dad sitting in the kitchen reading a newspaper, but his mother is nowhere to be found.

'Dad?' Jeremy asks, trying to get his father's attention.

'Yeah?' He barely looked up from the paper, obviously distracted.

'Where's mum?'

'Dunno...' He says nonchalantly, still looking at the newspaper.

Jeremy slowly averts his gaze away from his father, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and taken aback by his father's apathy. Why wasn't he concerned for her, she was his wife after all. He pours himself a bowl of cereal, going on with breakfast and gets ready, waiting for the bus at the bus stop down the road.

Once the bus arrived, he got on and sat at his usual spot near the front by himself as most of the popular kids had gravitated to the back seat. The drive itself wasn't any different from any other, the popular kids screaming and yelling, going on and on about God-knows-what as Jeremy looks out the window, observing the streets and its many features as the bus drove past. He was still thinking about the events that had unfolded last night and earlier in the morning. The bus stopped for a short while and Jeremy could hear the doors open, but he paid no attention as he focused on one of the trees in front of him. Before long he heard someone dump themselves onto the seat next to him, he whips his head towards that person's direction only to see his best friend of 6 years grinning at him.

'Hey buddy!' The cheerful boy had greeted.

'Hey.' Jeremy replied, still sort of lost in thought. It seemed that Michael noticed this, as he had furrowed his eyebrows and asked 'Something wrong?'

'I dunno, it's just..' Jeremy looked at his friend, who was now completely facing him, leaning towards his friend as though he were ready to lend him his ears.

'Well, my parents were arguing... Again...' Michael gave him an empathetic look, this wasn't the first time Jeremy had reported such a thing. 'And everything went as it normally does, they yell at each other really loudly and they end up insulting each other but... This time was different.'

'How different?' Michael asked, still giving Jeremy his full attention.

'Well, she got her car keys and kinda just left.'

'Were you watching them?!'

'They woke me up, and I got curious!'

'Well, she's home now right?'

'That's the thing... She wasn't home this morning and dad didn't even look like he cared!'

'Jeez dude...' Michael said quietly, staring for a short while before saying 'I wish I could help, but it looks like I can't really do anything anyways.'

'It's fine...' After that, the conversation seemed to die before Michael picked it up again with some random fun fact he had heard about on TV.

Soon the bus stopped at the school's bus stop and everyone hopped out, the school day going normally as though nothing was going to happen.

* * *

For the next few weeks, Jeremy hadn't seen or heard from his mother but his father sure did. Day in and day out, he would receive phone calls from various people and was constantly drawing in paperwork, barely leaving any time for his son. Jeremy started going to Michael's house more often as he was lonely from the lack of attention from his father, the absence of any siblings also contributing to his loneliness. At this point in time, Jeremy might as well refer to Michael's parents as his own with the amount of times he's been to his house for the past few weeks. Sometimes his dad would have to go out during the night, leaving Jeremy by himself in his house. Then, hours later, his dad would arrive back home looking obviously dishevelled.

This also caused a lot of stress on Jeremy. He didn't know what was going on, and he was worried about his mother. Where was she? Was she safe? Will he ever see her again? His father couldn't answer any of his questions, typically due to not having the energy to deal with his son or being busy with some paperwork. Sometimes Jeremy would peek over his shoulder and read it. A divorce paper. A divorce paper? He had heard one or two kids at school talk about how their parents were getting divorced, but other than that, he really didn't know much at all. He decided he didn't really want to know until curiosity got the better of him.

While his dad was away somewhere, he decided to hack (if logging into your father's account without him knowing counted as hacking) into his dad's laptop and use his trusted friend google to find the knowledge he needs. He stared at the computer blankly, he didn't know what some of the words meant due to his limited 10 year old vocabulary. 'Legal dissolution of marriage'? Well, he knew what legal meant, and he knew what marriage meant but dissolution? He decided that it meant something bad but just to be sure, he decided to look it up. He wished he hadn't even started this little research project. 'The act of officially ending...' Was his parent's relationship ending? What was going to happen to him if they did that? Were they going to leave him behind.

He hastily shut down the computer, and ran up to his room. He slammed himself onto his bed, letting out heaping sobs at the thought of his parents leaving him. After about a minute or so he looked up, running back down the stairs and into the kitchen where the home phone had been living, dealing Michael's house's number. It was one of the two numbers he knew by heart. The other number he knew was his dad's.

As the phone started to ring, he waiting anxiously for his friend, or at least one of his parents, to pick up. Soon, he heard the sound of a woman's voice.

'Hello?' She said, waiting for a response from the boy.

'H-Hey Mrs Mell!' Jeremy said nervously, wondering if the woman could notice in his voice that he had been crying.

'Hey Jeremy! God, I haven't seen you in a while, haven't I?'

The young boy giggled. 'It's only been a few days.'

She chuckles a little. 'It feels like it's been longer! Anyways, what's up?'

'Is Michael there?'

'Yes he is! Hold on, lemme get him.' Faintly, as though she were covering the phone, he could hear her call out to her son. 'Hey Michael, Jeremy wants to speak to you!'

After that, a faint 'I'll be there!' could be heard and the thumping of footsteps on a hardwood floor gradually got louder before his friend greeted him though the phone. 'Hey Jeremy, what's up!'

'Hey...' Jeremy said quietly, not entirely sure how to tell his best friend this new information.

'Is everything alright? You sound sad...'

'It's just...' Jeremy's eyes started to water as he thought about the previous events again. 'My parents are leaving...' He finally stated, receiving a startled gasp from Michael.

'What?! They're leaving you?!'

'I don't know! My dad's been writing on a bunch of these papers and it's something to do with divorce...'

'What's that?' Michael asked, this time calmer but obviously confused.

'It's something to do with ending a marriage or something... But what'll happen to me? Will they stop being my parents?'

'I dunno dude... If you need a place to stay my mum would happily adopt you or something...'

'Thanks dude...'

After that they talked for a little while longer, Michael successfully taking Jeremy's mind off of the original subject matter. However, despite his limited understanding, questions would constantly keep him up at night. Did they stop loving each other? Will they stop loving him too?

A few days later, Jeremy's dad sat him down and talked about what was happening. Despite knowing the news already, he kept to himself. His father explained that while he and his wife were separating, they would both still love him and might even be able to take turns in looking after him.

'I'm... kinda losing the battle here. It looks like your mother might end up getting full custody of you, but I'll see what I can do. Don't worry too much about it buddy, we'll still be a normal family.'

Jeremy smiled, but he knew things could never be as they were before.

insert break here*

A few weeks later and everything really did seem like it was normal. School remained the same, the popular kids still teasing him about various things, he and Michael still had regular hangouts. It really seemed like maybe everything would go back to normal. After school, however, was a different story.

He would wait patiently in class for the bell to ring, ignoring the teacher as he kept an eye on the clock, the bell ringing as it hit the 3:25pm mark. He would be dismissed from class and go to his locker, meeting Michael at his locker before they would head out to walk or catch the bus together. However, something was different. Jeremy saw his father's car parked outside the school, his father waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. He looked over at Michael and gestured, his friend just about as confused as he was. His dad wouldn't normally pick him up unless there was some kind of emergency, as he was normally at work until way after school finished.

'Dad, what's going-'

'Don't ask, just get in the car.'

Jeremy followed his instructions, placing bag on the seat next to him. His dad also got into the car and turned the key to start it, the loud roaring of the engine could be heard as the car awoke. Jeremy's dad proceeded to reverse out of his parking spot and onto the road. Jeremy kept an eye on both his dad and on the roads. For the first 5 or so minutes of the drive, the boy recognised the streets, his dad concentrating on the road as he soon turned a left. This was where things started to get weird for him. This was a road he didn't recognise, but maybe it's a shortcut. Maybe they'll be home shortly after this. He had never been so wrong in his life.

His dad kept turning into random streets, passing by unfamiliar houses and shops that aligned the streets, his heart racing as the minutes flew by and they were getting even more lost. At least Jeremy assumed they were lost. Maybe his dad knew where he was driving? He could feel his pulse in his chest, his breathing becoming slightly more laboured as the growing panic rose in his chest.

After 5 more minutes of this anxiety inducing drive, his dad pulled onto a freeway. After another minute of this silent drive, his dad spoke up.

'Your mother won custody over you. Full custody.'

Silence.

Jeremy didn't know what to say, his heart still racing even after his dad spoke those few words.

'Does that mean...' Jeremy gathered his thoughts. He didn't want to make assumptions but at this point it wouldn't hurt to ask. 'Does this mean I'll never see you again.'

Silence fell once again as his dad hadn't replied, Jeremy assuming that this meant yes. But if he wasn't supposed to see him again, why was he driving his son to an unknown location.

'Where are we going?'

His dad still refused to respond. Jeremy's gaze averted to the cars speedometer.

60 kilometres per hour.

He looked outside to find a speed limit.

60 kilometres per hour.

He looked back at the speedometer.

70 kilometres per hour.

His heart started beating faster, his breathing matched his heart rate.

'Dad.' Jeremy demanded. 'Where are we going?' He asked this slowly, fear starting to eat at him.

'Somewhere... Anywhere away from your mum. Far, far away.'

Jeremy stayed silent, he looked at the speedometer again.

80 kilometres per hour.

'Dad.' Jeremy insisted, trying to bring his father's attention to his speedometer.

'Your mother can't have you...'

90 kilometres per hour.

'Dad...!' Jeremy whines, hyperventilating as he pressed himself against his car seat. He didn't even why he was doing that. Maybe he subconsciously thought that it would protect him from anything that would happen.

100 kilometres per hour.

There weren't many cars on the road surprisingly but any cars that were in front of them, Jeremy's dad had managed to dodge. Surprisingly.

'Dad stop it! You're scaring me!' The boy was now screaming at the top of his lungs, crying loudly.

'If I can't have you, your mother can't either!' He proclaimed. Just as a truck was about to pass them on the left side of the road, Jeremy's father pulled over to the wrong side of the road. Jeremy raised his hands up in front of him in a feeble attempt to protect himself, his eyes closed shut as the car made impact with the truck causing almost deafening sounds of metal colliding.

* * *

 **A/N: Holy shit has it been so long since I've used this website. Anyways, recently I've started getting more interested in musicals, predominantly Be More Chill (especially with the revival on the way, so hyped!). Anyways I've had this idea for a while and as you can read from the summary, this is basically a human Squip (who I might need a name for) adopting Jeremy as his son. This can only go about as well as you can imagine.**


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